


The Pen Is Sharper

by KairiasYami2



Series: hope (comes slow) [9]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Backstory, Dee is an author, He's so smart uwu, and a lawyer, i really don't know what else to tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:48:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24727753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KairiasYami2/pseuds/KairiasYami2
Summary: Dee can’t quite remember why he first decided to publish his novels.(Day 24 of '500 word challenge' I'm doing with myself.)
Relationships: Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders/Deceit | Janus Sanders
Series: hope (comes slow) [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1671700
Comments: 6
Kudos: 50





	The Pen Is Sharper

**Author's Note:**

> This was honestly supposed to be about Logan figuring out that Dee is his favorite author Janus, but then Dee kinda got away from me, so here you guys go. More Dee backstory.
> 
> I am genuinely enjoying writing these side/backstory fics so much, they're super fun and they get me writing daily. I hope you guys are enjoying them as well! :D

Prompt: Sharpen

* * *

Dee can’t quite remember why he first decided to publish his novels. He’d always loved writing, but it had never been something he considered doing for a living. First he believed he’d be the heir to his family’s company, and after being disowned he was left so adrift that he didn’t think much of the future beyond that he would be spending it with Remus. 

For several months after his disownment, he doesn’t know what to do. He doesn’t need to worry about money, thank god, since he has his personal account that he managed to take with him and Remus is helping him get settled in. He’s living with Remus in his house, and Dee takes comfort in the fact that Remus is extremely supportive and welcoming. While he’s trying to adjust to living in America for real, and his new circumstances of being Dee Vero instead of Damian Dolo, he’s also trying to decide if he wants to go to a college to get a degree. And if he does, should it be in business as he had planned to do before? There is no company for him to inherit, no reason to pursue business, which has never been his passion. But he does think that he wants to further his education. Besides, he doesn’t want to have to rely on and mooch off of Remus forever. The man wouldn’t mind, likely, but Dee wants to repay him somehow for all Remus’s done for him.

So he applies for a college with Remus’s help (because it’s truly so complicated. Why does he need to pay to even apply to any of these colleges? That’s absurd! And why in the world are the tuition fees so high?! It’s robbery!), thanking any higher power that may exist that he and Remus combined have enough money to cover tuition without having to take out a loan. His first year, he takes mainly required core curriculum courses, getting them out of the way so in later years he can focus on whatever he decides to major in. With one exception - as a way to make sure he doesn’t have a horrible, no fun year, he chooses to take a creative writing course as an elective. It’s been a while since he was able to write any kind of fiction, and he looks forward to it.

Dee enjoys the class. Sometimes it’s a little stifling, having to write on someone else’s command, being confined to _this_ genre or _that_ , depending on the unit they’re covering that week. But he enjoys writing, and he appreciates getting feedback on his writing. He’s not the best at poetry, and doesn’t love the poetry unit they do, but he flourishes during their short story unit. One week, a random week, he writes a flash fiction, along the lines of those “two sentence horror stories,” and the response he gets is overwhelming. As they always do, one day a week they take the time to let anyone share something they’ve written, for the class or not. It’s a judgement free zone, and Dee likes taking the time to read some of his favorite pieces, hoping to improve his writing. When he reads his story to the class, making sure to give it the emphasis and drama he feels it deserves, he is left with a class of quiet, shocked peers. Even the professor is stunned silent, and for a second he fears that his story was just _that_ bad.

But then someone speaks up. “ _ Holy shit _ .” The exclamation is quiet, but heard throughout the room, and it breaks the tension. Everyone starts speaking at once, and Dee is disconcerted to note that a boy in the back has burst into tears.

After many confusing minutes, Dee is told by the teacher that she had never been so scared by a simple story, and that she will fail him if he doesn’t keep writing like that. “You could have a real future as an author,” she tells him seriously, and Dee carefully doesn’t scoff. He’s never let himself entertain thoughts like that, having had it drilled into his head by his father that frivolous hobbies such as writing should remain simply hobbies. He keeps writing, and sharing with the class, and each time he writes a horror story he gets told the same thing - “you need to publish these” and “that was so unsettling, dude” and eventually, Dee realizes he no longer wants to scoff every time someone tells him to become a published author. He realizes that he...wants to, he thinks, which is a novel feeling - having a vision for the future and  _ actually wanting it _ , instead of just going along with it because it was the thing to do.

As a sort of final test, Dee tells Remus about his thoughts and worries, then reads some of his short stories. Remus lavishes praise on him, and Dee begins to actually consider becoming a published author.

He decides to use a pseudonym, ‘Janus’ as a nod towards his birth name (the only one he allows himself), because he doesn’t want any recognition or fame he receives to interfere with his daily life. The first book he publishes isn’t a novel, but instead an anthology of his horror shorts. It does, startlingly well, honestly. Dee had expected perhaps some interest among horror fans, but people are apparently salivating at the thought of a full length novel from him. So Dee tentatively releases another book, this one a novel he has been slowly writing for years but never seriously thought about publishing.

It gains him what amounts to a cult following. Apparently a good horror novel that has more than just gratuitous gore and cheesy plot is something people would pay ludicrous amounts of money for. Combine that with the fact that he has realistic characters, many of whom aren’t white or straight, and suddenly he’s the Internet’s darling. 

(Dee is surprised and not a little disturbed to find fanfiction about him, as Janus, being either horribly murdered or ravished by some of his fictional villains. He doesn’t mind the fanfiction, he’s flattered about that really, it’s just very disconcerting when it’s him that’s the main focus of said fanfiction. Especially since his fans don’t even know much about him, so there’s so much misinformation and fanmade ideas about what he’s like.)

He continues with his classes, and eventually decides to study law and become a lawyer. Really, he doesn’t need to, but he enjoys debates and talking around people, and after an incident where Remus is almost arrested he decides he wants to be able to help Remus in case the other man ever gets into trouble with the law that he can’t get out of. And after years of studying he does become a lawyer, an infamous one who isn’t afraid to lose a case if the client is one he knows is guilty of any serious crime. Otherwise, however, he has never lost a case when he actually puts his effort into it.

Soon, he is raking in money from both his book sales and his lawyer work, and he stops feeling like a freeloader. He’s happy, and fulfilled, and doesn’t think he could be happier. 

He’s proven wrong when he and Remus meet and fall in love with first Virgil then Logan. But that’s another story.


End file.
